Concentration Guide

Social Relations...

NO WRITER ATTRIBUTED
April 27, 1949

Until men eschew relations with women, men, and the animal kingdom, Social Relations is pertinent of the livelihood and enjoyment of every student. It is a valuable major, be one's future buried in a monastery, in business or the professions, or in the Fiji Islands. It even has something to offer the confirmed hermit, for it provides much enlightenment on conversation with the self.

Furthermore, it not too tough.

Usurping the position of English and Government, Social Relations has become in the last few years the major to espouse when one can't think of anything else. The Department was formed in 1946 by slicing the big names and titles out of Psychology, Sociology, and Anthropology and has in its scope anything pertaining to man as a functioning organism, as a force acting upon other men, and as a pawn in the fist of history and economics.

Soc Rel Still Young

Eight half courses out of the nearly unlimited subject matter of the discipline and two half courses from related fields, which means most of the fields in the College, are required for concentration. However, the concentrator must be able to pass a set of general examinations including some anthropology sociology, social psychology, and individual psychology. These generals are not easy, but one half course in each of these areas should stand the examinee in good stead.

The Social Relations Department is unique in many ways. Only three years old, it shows the strain of maturation in many of its limbs, but as it is growing, so it is strengthening and pushing out in new directions. First, many of its courses are taught by two, three and often a myriad of experts covering various topics. Being a nebulous discipline which contains more theory than fact, the opinions of more than one instructor are often necessary.

Another unique departure is the lack of prerequisites throughout the field. The concentrator or the free lance student can get into the area at almost any point. Social Relations la is a good background for all other courses in the department, but it is not essential and can be finessed if one's special interests are confined.

Tutorial is open to all honors candidates from sophomore year, for one year with credit. The tutorial staff is comparatively large and includes most of the big names of the department. Furthermore, tutorial is often conducted on lines of original research, subjects for which are unlimited in either psychology, sociology or anthropology.

During the last year, the empirical side of Social Relations has become more and more stressed with in the department. Although personal theories by Professors Parsons, Allport, Sorokin, Murray, Kluckhohn, Zimmerman, and White still predominate in the reading and lectures throughout the Department, six factual and statistical courses were grafted onto the curriculum this year, and there will be more of such courses.

Easy Entrance

Falling into the semi-fiction category are sociology courses on Russia, the United States, France, Germany, England, the Near and Far East and many others. Primarily from the sociological point of view, these courses contain much History and are as well adapted for the non-concentrator or new entree into the field as they are for the well-initiated.

Perhaps one of the most valuable aspects for the concentrator is an active undergraduate Social Relations Society. This group, besides conducting many colloquiums and lectures for the concentrator and bringing in experts from outside the University, published an inclusive catalogue of courses with analysis last year which it intends to duplicate this year.